Gadgetory

hi I'm David Katz Maya from CNET and next to me is a 55 inch member of Vizio Z series there's a lot of different size and videos each series from 24 inches all up to 70 this review will apply to the 39 to 70 inch sizes those are the ones that have videos local dimming feature I'll get to that in a little bit first quick look at the e-series styling around the edge here you can see a really thin bezel very minimalist look the TV sits nice and low atop the stand the stand does not swivel but all told it's a relatively generic but also unassuming look that'll pretty much fit into any decor from the side you can see this set is a little bit thicker than some of the edgelet LED models out there that's because it has a direct LED backlight instead so it is a little thick and the speaker's do face backwards so the sound isn't that great but again it's fine for a flat panel TV in terms of styling not a big fan of vizio is remote it's the same as it's been since 2011 and buttons are really closely spaced there's no backlighting and all told a little bit difficult to navigate the menus have improved however this year Vizio did integrate the same menus found in its step-up models from last year into this inexpensive ease series the set also has the new Smart TV system from last year it's a really simple design along the bottom of the screen you get a bunch of icons that you can scroll around you can also take away and add icons of course the icons lead to different apps including Netflix Hulu Plus a few audio apps and the selection apps is very good although you don't get HBO go of course that's an exclusive to Samsung this year one exclusive vizio has is a Rhapsody app so if you subscribe or you might appreciate having the audio come out of the TV for that a couple other things worth mentioning on the TV this inexpensive you get built-in Wi-Fi and the set can also use DLNA to reach out and stream files from your local network around back there's a single USB port for streaming local media as well as a number of HDMI inputs that varies with the size of the TV the larger TVs get more and the smaller TVs get as little as two on the other side you also get a component video input composite video and an Ethernet jack moving on to the picture quality that's where the e-series really shines for such an inexpensive TV this set has simply phenomenal picture quality that's a lot to do with the local dimming on this TV which allows the LEDs to dim individually depending on whether the content itself is bright or dark so the end result is excellent contrast and local dimming just simply isn't found at this price level the set also has pretty accurate color and decent video processing as well as a nice matte screen for bright rooms another bonus for the direct LED scheme is excellent uniformity so I didn't notice too many bright splotches on this TV as we've seen on some other edgelet LEDs all told the picture quality is excellent on the Vizio e-series combine that with its affordable price it's one of the most recommendable TVs so far in 2014 that's a quick look at the Vizio e-series again the 39 inch and larger models I'm David Katz meier cocina